Cole Hammer (USGA photo)
Stacy Lewis, captain of the U.S. team for the upcoming Spirit International Amateur, has announced the four-person team that will compete at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas.
The U.S. squad includes four collegiate golfers in Andy Ogletree (Little Rock, Miss./Georgia Tech University), Cole Hammer (Houston, Texas/University of Texas), Emilia Migliaccio (Cary, N.C./Wake Forest University), and Kaitlyn Papp (Austin, Texas/University of Texas).
The Spirit International Amateur is a biennial event which alternates with the World Amateur Team Championship. It will be played Nov. 7-9. The Spirit features 80 competitors from 20 countries, representing six continents. Teams will play 54 holes of four-ball stroke play with three concurrent competition categories: international team, men’s team and women’s team.
The U.S. team is looking for its sixth overall and fifth consecutive win. The Americans last won in 2015. The 2017 event was cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey.
“The Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship is such a special event and I look forward to serving as captain for Team USA,’ Lewis said. “With Cole, Andy, Emilia and Kaitlyn, we have a great team that I know will represent our country well. It’s going to be a great week of competition.”
The resumes are deep for the Americans this year. Ogletree will tee it up as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion and Cole Hammer is the current top-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Both represented the victorious American team at the Walker Cup earlier this month.
Migliaccio has had plenty of team experience, too, and always seems to be quite a productive member of the squad. She was undefeated at the 2016 Junior Ryder Cup and 2017 Junior Solheim Cup and has since made two turns on the U.S. Palmer Cup teams. Most recently, the Wake Forest junior won individual gold – and helped her country to team gold – at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Papp, like Hammer a Texas native, was Big 12 Player and Freshman of the year in 2018. She played in the 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur and finished fifth.
ABOUT THE The Spirit International Amateur
The Spirit International Amateur Golf
Championship is world class golf event
played every other year. It features the
world’s best amateur men and amateur
women golfers as they represent their
respective country in team and individual
competitions. The 96 participants enjoy an
Olympic-like experience from the
Opening/Closing Ceremonies, international
village and competing for gold medals.
The World Health & Golf Association and
Texas Golf Association invite 24 countries
from six continents to participate. Established
in 2001, The Spirit is a biennial event that
alternates tournament years with the World
Amateur Team Championships.
Part of the uniqueness of the Spirit International are
the five simultaneous competitions:
Combined International Championship, Men’s Team
Championship, Women’s Team
Championship, Men’s Individual and Women’s
Individual.
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